No Name Woman by Maxine Hong Kingston

Maxine Hong Kingston’s “No Name Woman” is about Kingston’s no name aunt who killed herself and her baby by jumping into the family well the day that she gave birth. When her family found out that Kingston’s aunt was pregnant, her aunt’s husband had been gone for years, so they knew that the baby was obviously illicit. Such disgrace in China was considered egregious and her father’s family regarded her aunt as a “no one” after her death. The mother warns the author to neither question nor talk about her aunt, but tells the story to caution the narrator as Kingston begins to menstruate. As Kingston fantasize about her aunt and what her aunt had to endure, she is baffled by the difference between the restricted Chinese society and lenient American society and which to accept as a Chinese-American. With Kingston’s descriptions of her family’s severe treatments towards her aunt, Kingston tried to not only diminish her aunt’s sins but also justify her own lack of Chinese nationalism and ethnic confusion. Her antagonistic descriptions of Chinese society clarify her ambivalence towards the norms of China. So the story is intended for specifically other Chinese people who might not have understood the struggles of Chinese Americans before reading Kingston’s essay. Furthermore, the author’s no name aunt is not just an unfortunate lady rejected by both the Chinese society and her family, but a symbolism of imperfections of the repressive traditional Chinese society. Kingston’s revolutionary works that outlined the differences between Chinese and American beliefs were often regarded as an impurity of the traditional China, but Kingston continued to write about what she believed in. Thus the author might have offended those conservative Chinese with her subtle denounce of Chinese traditions. However, the author achieved her purpose to other Chinese-Americans who are as perplexed as she is and people from other countries who are unaware of the restrictive Chinese culture by making them think that the consequences of freedom are too harsh.

No Name WomanBy KellyMaryOnette
http://kellymaryonette.deviantart.com/art/No-Name-Woman-141688627
The No Name Woman is sitting by the family well that she jumped in. Even as a ghost, she does not have anywhere to go, because her family regard her as a no one.